Shepherd's Pie

It's Monday again so time for another freezer recipe. I was a little wary of freezing mashed potatoes but it turned out just fine. This recipe was also more time consuming to put together as I had to make the mashed potatoes (all 10 pounds) and cook the ground turkey (4 lbs) ahead of time. Still it was really nice to just layer the finished product in a pan when I was ready to cook it.

Shepherd's Pie

1 lb ground turkey or beef

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 clove, minced

1 16-ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables, thawed

1 5-ounce can tomato sauce

1 tbl Worcestershire sauce

Mashed Potatoes

Cheddar Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 In a 12-inch skilled over med-high heat, cook the beef, onion and garlic until meat is browned and onion is tender. Drain. Transfer the mixture to a 3-quart round casserole.

3. Add veggies, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce to meat mixture in dish.

4 Top with mashed potatoes and shredded cheese and bake for 30 minutes.

To freeze: Cook meat mixture and allow to cool. Also make your mashed potatoes. Remember you'll need to double or triple your ingredients. I made 4 freezer meals.

When potatoes are cool put into gallon sized freezer bags and seal.

When meat in cool put into gallon sized freezer bags and then add the rest of the ingredients, seal, and mix around by squeezing the bag.

Then put the potato bag and veggie bag into one gallon sized freezer bag together, seal, and label.

There you go: Dinner to go in a bag. This did take a while to thaw to be sure to put this dish in the fridge the evening before you plan to cook it.

Freezer Burritos

Remember this recipe for Easy Mexican Rice Burritos. Shawn needed some healthy lunches to take to work. When we were first married I used to buy him those frozen bean burritos from the store but these days I just make my own frozen burritos. Just make the Easy Mexican Rice recipe and substitue brown rice to be extra healthy. Put a heaping spoonful or two in a whole wheat tortilla wrap (again extra healthy) and top with some cheese. Then roll up.

I put each burrito in a sandwich bag and then all the burritos in a gallon freezer bag. That way they don't get freezer burn and you can decide if you want one or two. Also, there is no need to defrost as you can just pop them in the microwave just like the ones you buy at the store.

This recipe made 18 burritos and cost me practically nothing as I already have all the ingredients in my food storage. I just had to buy the tortillas. By the way, even if you don't have all the ingredients on hand this is still a super cheap meal to make and as you can see it makes a lot.

Veggie and Barley stew

I made this stew about a week ago. I doubled the recipe and then divided it up into gallon-size freezer bags. I ended up with enough for 6 dinners. I also made cornbread muffins and divided those up into quart-size freezer bags. I love the idea of freezer meals. There is no waste and it saves so much time throughout the rest of the week. As an added bonus, this meal is super healthy and you can really experiement with all kinds of veggies. Gotta love that.

Veggie and Barley Stew

3/4 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped carrots

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

3 cups tomato-vegetable juice

3 cups water

1 potato, peeled and cubed

1 (15 oz) peas, frozen or canned

1 (15 oz) can, whole kernel corn, drained

2 (15 oz) cans garbanzo beans, drained

1/2 cup barley

1 tbl soy sauce

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dill weed

1. In large pot over high heat combine all ingredients.

2. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes, or until veggies and barley are tender.

This is the recipe I doubled and froze.

When I was ready for stew I tossed the frozen soup in the crock pot and turned it on high for 2 hours and left the muffins out to thaw while my family watched conference. By lunchtime we had a warm filling stew with our cornbread muffins. Yummy!